McNabb still gets nod over Romo

Published online on Monday, Nov. 09, 2009

PHILADELPHIA -- You watch a marquee game like this - Cowboys at Eagles, first place in the NFC East on the line - and you try to imagine either team playing in the Super Bowl in February.

Reduce that to its essence and you're trying to picture one of the quarterbacks, Tony Romo or Donovan McNabb, leading his team to Miami. Sunday night, in a game with more undisciplined penalties than scores, that little exercise was nearly impossible.

Bottom line: I'll still take McNabb over Romo, 100 times out of 100. He's tougher, physically and mentally, and he can still make things happen by avoiding the rush, keeping a play alive and throwing on the move. When Romo has to move, he still looks like Jim Carrey doing one of his rubber-legged characters.

But there is more to it than that. McNabb turns 33 later this month and his supporting cast just isn't ripe enough yet. With Brian Westbrook as likely to sit as to play with one injury or another, McNabb has to rely on rookies LeSean McCoy and Jeremy Maclin, plus second-year receiver DeSean Jackson.

So McNabb is as likely to get a streaking Jackson behind the secondary as a ball clanging off Maclin's hands for an interception. Actually, McNabb's second pick, a momentum turner late in the third quarter, was an even better example. Maclin seemed very surprised when the ball came down - in the hands of the Cowboy who was covering him, Mike Jenkins.

You're as likely to get McCoy bouncing outside for a nice run as dropping a crucial screen pass in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, the offensive-line renewal project - did the Eagles get federal stimulus money for that? - has not exactly gone smoothly. That complicates everything McNabb tries to do with the football.

Romo is still on the right side of 30. The guys he relies on - Marion Barber, Jason Witten, Roy Williams, Patrick Crayton - are in the primes of their careers, too. They all have at least five seasons of experience. Miles Austin, the Cowboys' big-play equivalent to Jackson, is in his fourth season.

There has been a lot of talk of late about McNabb being the mentor to his young offensive teammates. It's almost as if someone at the NovaCare Complex handed out Talking Points about No. 5 and his evolving leadership role. The idea that McNabb hasn't been a leader is overblown and always has been. It's an easy way for people with no idea how that locker room works to find new ways to dump blame on McNabb.

It has always been part of his relationship with Philadelphia fans. So if he's being more vocal when it comes to herding the rookies in practice or during games, and if that makes him appear to be a better leader, then fine.

But it was back at the start of training camp that McNabb said the most insightful thing anyone has said about the 2009 Eagles. This was just after the players reported, when club president Joe Banner's proclamation that they had the most talented roster in the NFL was still fresh. Apprised of the remark, McNabb raised an eyebrow in classic John Belushi fashion.

"I think it's premature to say that," McNabb said. "Obviously when guys come out of college and with the great things they were able to do in college, people think that they can translate that to the NFL. It's hard to say, because some have and some haven't. I think you have to give guys the opportunity to develop in the offense and the schemes in which they've been drafted into. For Maclin, it's too much pressure to put on his shoulders to do what DeSean did in his rookie year. ... There are a lot of questions, even for myself."

The story of this Eagles season, it turns out, is the progress the kids can make before the games that matter most in December and January. In recent weeks, it was possible to think a small miracle might be in the offing. McCoy was playing like a veteran. With coverages shaded toward Jackson, Maclin had a few good games.

Sunday night, youth was part of the Eagles' undoing. Maclin contributed to two interceptions. McCoy dropped a second-and-10 pass on the series that ended with McNabb's quarterback keeper leading to a loss of downs.

Romo was all over the place, as usual. He made an easy throw to the wide-open Austin for what proved to be the winning touchdown. But he made three terrible throws near the end of the first half after driving to a first down on the Eagles' 4-yard line.

Neither quarterback looked likely to be playing in Miami in February, which is fine. It was hard enough watching them on a Sunday night in November.